Topping $100B, Netflex value on par with Goldman Sachs

Netflix surged after a blow-out quarter, vaulting past $100 billion in market value for the first time to put the video service on a lofty perch with the likes of Goldman Sachs and Qualcomm.

The world’s largest online TV network late Monday reported its strongest year of subscriber growth to date. Netflix added 24 million customers in 2017, bringing its global total to 117.6 million. For the final three months of the year, the Los Gatos, California-based company crushed Wall Street estimates and suggested it will continue to do so in 2018.

While rival media companies merge, fire staff and fret about the future of their businesses, Netflix keeps chugging along, adding customers at home, in Europe and Latin America. Fourth-quarter sales grew by a third to $3.29 billion, the company said, while earnings almost tripled from a year prior to 41 cents, meeting estimates.

Netflix will plow all of that and more into new TV shows and movies. The company has said it will spend as much as $8 billion on programming this year, and disclosed Monday it will shell out another $2 billion for marketing.

Netflix signed up 8.33 million customers in the fourth quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimates of 6.34 million, thanks in large part to the popularity of the fantasy series “Stranger Things” and the new Will Smith movie “Bright.”

That success has inspired Facebook, Apple and Amazon.com to try original programming. It has also spurred rivals like Walt Disney Co. to invest more in online services and acquire competitors.